As part of the journalistic user requirements gathering in REVEAL, we conducted 24 interviews with journalists, mostly throughout 2014. Some of the findings and insights into dealing with user-generated content have now been published in the paper “Emerging Journalistic Verification Practices Concerning Social Media”. 50 users can download the paper for free.

The paper “Emerging Journalistic Verification Practices Concerning Social Media” by Petter Bae Brandtzaeg, Marika Lüders, Jochen Spangenberg, Linda Rath-Wiggins and Asbjørn Følstad has been published by Taylor & Francis in Journalism Practice in its March 2015 edition.

50 initial users have the opportunity to download the paper for free. Simply go to this dedicated link of Taylor & Francis and download your free copy!

If you do not manage to get a free issue of the paper, you still have the chance to access it – but then at a cost of € 30.00. Here’s the link to the paid version.

Abstract of the paper

The verification of social media content and sources is increasingly critical to journalists and news organisations. In this study, we report on findings from qualitative interviews conducted with 24 journalists working with social media in major news organisations in Europe. Our findings contribute to new knowledge on journalists’ social media working practices. We find that social media content is often used as the primary news source, and journalists use several different verification strategies to verify social media content and sources. Journalists are also found to have various competences in verifying social media content, in particular visual content. Moreover, our study suggests user requirements for future innovations in tools to support the verification of social media content. To avoid trade-offs between verification and fast-paced publishing, journalists will need efficient and easy-to-use support both in the verification process and in structuring and organising an overwhelming amount of social media content.